In light of the positive response to Elia’s midsummer wild hair to sell reduced-price Reamers in the Raw — and because it’s just an all-around good idea — we’ve decided to expand the concept. We are now pleased to offer both Travishers in the Raw and Tenon Cutters in the Raw.
I’m coming up on eight years working with Elia at Hand Tool Woodworking. For most of that time I’ve been carving out a niche as resident toolmaker, primarily producing our travishers and tenon cutters. While making hundreds of the same tool can get repetitive, it thankfully also lends itself to gradual refinement. Knowing that each batch of tools I make has been a slight improvement on the previous batch keeps things interesting and preserves a creative spark.
Over time our tools have become more precise, more practical, more consistently uniform, and — if I may say so — easier on the eyes. This has been a collaborative process, often with me problem-finding through hands-on workflow hiccups and Elia problem-solving by acquiring the right equipment or nifty jig-making. All of this takes time and has led to steady increases in our tool prices. By selling these tools “in the raw” we will be able to still provide quality tools at a reduced price and leave the level of finishing up to you.
When Elia first brought up this idea I was unsure about it. How would I feel about stopping at a certain point in the toolmaking process before a tool was finished according to my normal standards? It’s been an adjustment, but a good one. I’ve had to look through my toolmaking “recipes” and figure out which steps could be reasonably passed on to an adventurous end-user with some brief instruction — or even left undone and still produce a working tool. It’s actually been fun to whip through a couple batches of tools in record time and shake up my routine.
So what will you get? For the travishers, I’ve done the essential tooling of the brass soles but the blending and smoothing of those cuts is left undone. Each sole is matched to the individual blade that comes with the tool, but the blades will need to be sharpened. For the body of the tool, aesthetic chamfers and sanding have been omitted, as well as our shellac finish. Each tool will, however, come with an instruction list on how to make it workable at minimum, and how to — if so inclined — make it sexy. Both standard and wide-radius versions are available on our travishers page for $150 each, half the price of our finished tools.
For the tenon cutters, I’ve cut the blade beds, reamed the cutting holes, turned the handles, and hollow-ground the blades. All that’s left on these, besides finishing, will be to hone and set the blades. Setting can be a little tricky, but instructions are included and I’m always an email away for stubborn cases. All three of our standard sizes are available on our tenon cutters page for $70 each (also half our normal price).
So, while this won’t give you a purely soup-to-nuts DIY experience, it will hopefully provide an affordable and moderately challenging option for those of you who would like these tools, but have been hindered by the price tag.
Here’s to wild hairs, and may your blades be sharp enough to split them!
